Water Sleeps

59

O nce we cleared the mountains, it was no long journey to the site of Kiaulune. Incredible destruction had been wrought there during the Shadowmaster wars, then during the Kiaulune wars between the Radisha and those who chose to keep faith with the Black Company. A pity most of the wreckage had been cleared away even before Soulcatcher decided she could declare victory and go north to claim her new place as Protector of All the Taglias. The Radisha should have seen it at its worst, to understand what she had wrought by betraying her contract with the Company. But the worst now existed only in the memories of survivors. The once-clamorous valley now boasted a sizable town and a checkerboard of new farms peopled by a mixture of natives, former prisoners of war and deserters from every conceivable faction. Peace had broken out and was being enthusiastically exploited on the presumption that it could not possibly last.

The transition from the old Kiaulune, once called Shadowcatch, and the new, simply called the New Town, saw one thing remain unchanged. Over there on the far slope of the valley, miles and miles away, beyond the crumbled, brush-strewn ruins of once-mighty Overlook, where the land quickly changed from rich green to almost barren brown, was the dreaded thing called the Shadowgate. It did not stand out but I felt its call. I told my companions, "We have to be careful not to get in a hurry now. Haste could be deadly."

The Shadowgate was not just the only way we could get up onto the plain to go free the Captured, it was also the only portal through which the shadows imprisoned up there could escape and begin treating the whole world the way their cousins had the destitute of Taglios. And that gate was in tender shape. The Shadowmasters had injured and weakened it badly when gaining access to the shadows they enslaved.

"We're in complete agreement on that," Uncle Doj replied. "All the lore emphasizes the need for caution."

There had been some disagreement between us lately. He had resumed his romance with the idea of the Company Annalist becoming his understudy in the peculiar role he played among the Nyueng Bao. The Company Annalist who had no great interest in the job but Doj was one of those people who just have grave difficulties getting their minds around the concept "No!"

"That's new," I said, indicating a small structure a quarter mile below the Shadowgate, beside the road. "And I don't like its looks." It was hard to tell from so far but the structure looked like a small fortification built of stone salvaged from the rubble of Overlook.

Doj grunted. "A potential complication."

Swan observed, "We keep standing around looking like spies, somebody's going to get unpleasant with us."

A point not without substance, although those in charge seemed awfully lax. It was obvious that trouble had not visited in a while. Quite probably not since the Black Company left. "Somebody—probably named me, because I'm the only one here who looks like what she says she is—will have to go scout around." The original plan had been for everybody to camp in the barrens not far downhill from where that new structure now stood.

I was troubled. Someone should have been watching for us to come out of the mountains. I hoped that was just Sahra's oversight. She had been married to the Company for an age but never did learn to think like a soldier. If nobody offered good advice, or she chose to ignore the advice she was given because, like many civilians, she could not grasp why all the little horsepuckey things have to be done, she might not have thought it important to watch for us.

I prayed it was as simple as that.

Nobody demanded that I give them the role of scout. Poor me. More sore feet while the rest of them loafed around in the shade of young pines.

The white crow materialized minutes after I turned the knee of a hill and the others were out of sight. It swooped at me and squawked. It swooped at me again. I tried to swat it like it was some huge, really annoying bug. It laughed and came back, now squawking what sounded like words.

I got it. Finally. The bird wanted me to follow it. "Lead on, fell harbinger, never forgetting that I'm not Gunni and therefore hobbled by no holy ban against eating meat." I had enjoyed, if that is the proper word, crow stew several times during the lowest lows of my military career.

The crow had only my interests at heart. It led me straight to a large tent village on a hillside overlooking the near outskirts of the New Town. Our people had to be only some of the refugees housed there but Sahra's hand was obvious everywhere. The layout was neat and orderly and clean. Exactly as the Captain's rules insisted, though those are honored mainly in the breech when he is not around.

I suffered an immediate conflict. Charge ahead to see everyone I had missed for months? Or run back and collect my traveling companions? Once I started gabbing, it might be hours before—

My choice got made for me. Tobo spotted me.

My first warning was a shout. "Sleepy!" A mass of churning arms and legs charged in from the left and collected me in a totally unexpected hug.

I wriggled loose. "You've grown." A lot. He was taller than me now. And his voice had deepened. "You won't be able to be Shiki anymore. The great men of Taglios will be brokenhearted."

"Goblin says it's time I start breaking the girls' hearts, anyway." There was not much doubt that he would have the power to do that. He was going to be a handsome man who had no lack of confidence.

Uncharacteristically, I slipped an arm around his waist and walked down toward where other familiar faces had begun to appear. "How was your journey?"

"Mostly kind of fun, except when they made me study, which was about all the time. Sri Surendranath is worse than Goblin but he says I could be a scholar. So Mother always backs them up whenever anybody wants to make me study. But we got to see a lot of neat things. There was this temple in Praiphurbed that was completely covered with carvings of people doing it all different ways—oh, I'm sorry." He reddened.

Tobo had a mental image of me as a sort of chaste nun. And most of my adult life would not contradict that view. But I am not against interpersonal adventures, I am just not interested myself. Probably because, Swan insists, I have not yet run into the man whose animal presence completely overwhelms my intellectual reluctance. Swan being a leading authority in his own mind.

He keeps volunteering. Who knows? Maybe someday I will become curious enough to experiment, just to find out if I can be touched without running away to my place to hide.

Now the others were wishing me welcome with a sincerity that set another place inside me, a small, warm place, all aglow. My comrades. My brothers. All kinds of rattle and chatter inundated me. Now we were going to do something. Now we were going to get somewhere. Now we were going to kick some ass if we had to. Sleepy was here to figure it all out and tell everybody where and when to stick the knife.

"God knows all the secrets and all the jokes," I said, "and I wish He'd share the secret of the joke that explains why He created such a scruffy bunch of hired killers." I used a little finger to get rid of a tear before anybody realized that it was not raining. "You guys look pretty fat for having been on the road so long."

Somebody said, "Shit, we been here waiting for you for a whole fuckin' month. Some of us. The slowest ones got here last week."

"How's One-Eye doing?" I asked as Sahra wriggled through the throng.

"He's fucked up," a voice volunteered. "How'd you know... ?"

I exchanged hugs with Sahra. She said, "We were starting to worry." A question clung to the edge of her statement.

"Tobo. Your grandmother and Uncle Doj are waiting in the woods back up the road. Run up and tell them to come on down."

"Where're the rest?" somebody demanded.

"Swan is with them. The rest are behind us somewhere. We broke up into three groups after we reached the highlands. There were crows around. We didn't want to give them anything obvious to watch."

"We did the same thing after we left the barges," Sahra told me. "Did you see many crows? We saw only a few. They might not have been the Protector's."

"The white one keeps turning up."

"We saw it, too. Are you hungry?"

"You kidding? I've been eating your mother's cooking since we left Jaicur." I looked around. People were watching who were not Black Company. They might only be refugees, too, but the enthusiasm of my reception was sure to cause talk.

Sahra laughed. It sounded more like the laughter of relief than that of good humor. "How is Mother?"

"I think there's something wrong, Sahra. She's stopped being nasty, bitter old Ky Gota. Most of the time she's lost inside herself. And those times when she is completely aware, she almost has manners."

"In here." Sahra lifted a tent flap. It was the largest tent in the encampment. "And Uncle Doj?"

"A step slower but still Uncle Doj. He wants me to turn Nyueng Bao and be his apprentice. Like I have a lot of free time being Murgen's apprentice. He says it's just because he doesn't have anybody else to pass his responsibilities on to. Whatever they are. He seems to think I should sign on before he tells me what for."

"Did you get the Key?"

"We did. Uncle Doj has it in his pack. But Singh got away. Not unexpectedly. Did he turn up here? We picked up rumors along the way that gave me the idea that he was ahead of us and gaining ground. You do still have the girl?"

Sahra nodded. "But she's a handful. I think bringing her south again put her in closer touch with Kina. Common sense tells me we should break our promise and kill her." She settled on a cushion. "I'm glad you're here. I'm completely worn out. Keeping these people under control when there's so little for them to do... it's a miracle that we haven't had any major incidents... I bought a farm."

"You what?"

"I bought a farm. Not far from the Shadowgate. They tell me the soil is lousy, but it's a place where most of the men can stay out of sight and keep out of trouble and even stay busy building housing or working the ground so we'll eventually be self-supporting. Half the gang is over there now. Most of these guys here would be, too, except that Murgen said you were going to arrive today. You made good time. We didn't expect you for several more hours."

"Does that mean you're all caught up on what's going on in the world outside?"

"I have a particularly talented husband who doesn't always share everything with me. And I don't always share him with the others. And we both probably shouldn't be that way. There're a thousand things we need to talk about, Sleepy. I don't know where to start. So why not just with, how are you?"